The ‘privatization of politics’?

In Central Europe, the commercial sector is a major player and the gains of political players are primarily private. It appears that political parties preside over the continuous marketization of the state. A ‘corporate brokerage party’ directs its strategic focus to the private sector and acts primarily as a broker of the state’s power in the marketplace, whether expressed through privatisation, regulation or public procurement. Politicians appear to be able to direct allocation to the private sector with low regulatory constraints. Are politicians in Central Europe technocratic brokers of the public interest, partisan constituency- or organisation-builders? Or should we regard them as private agents?

About Abby Innes

Abby Innes is Assistant Professor of the Political Economy of Central and Eastern Europe at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. Her works include Czechoslovakia: The Short Goodbye (2001, Yale University Press). Her long term research interests are in the evolution of party-state relationships in Europe (East, Central and Western). Her current research is on the political economy of state capture in Europe e.g. “The Political Economy of State Capture in Central Europe,” Journal of Common Market Studies 2014, 52(1): 88-104.